Some managers want to be close to their players, some even want to be friendly in an effort to get the best out of them. Roy Keane doesn’t even bother speaking to them.
Well he does, but only when he has to, like match days and, perhaps, a team talk in training to discuss what happened in the previous game. The rest of the time, Keane does a lot of standing around looking contemplative and moody.
I’m pretty sure it isn’t an approach that features prominently in the Beginner's Guide to Coaching manual but it is typical of Keane and the image he likes to project. The question is, though, will it work to keep Sunderland up this season?
There is undoubtedly an aura around Keane - as there used to be with another former Manchester United midfielder and captain Bryan Robson until everyone realised he was basically a poor manager dressed up as a great player - and it is something he enjoys.
Of course, he would never tell you that he enjoys it, Keane never tells anyone that he enjoys anything. That is another part of his image management. He doesn’t want you to know what he is feeling.
And he also doesn’t want anyone to know what he is thinking either, he likes surprises and he loves the fact people think he is unpredictable because he doesn’t want anyone to feel relaxed around him.
When Keane was a young man he played under Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest and there is plenty of Cloughie in Keano and it is something he has deliberately cultivated.
Like Clough, Keane criticises when people expect praise and vice-versa. He will drop players who feel they are safe in the team because he wants to guard against complacency and, while he would never dream of taking a call from anyone in the media, he is great to deal with when he has to fulfil his media duties.
When Kieran Richardson, Michael Chopra, Danny Higginbotham and Daryl Murphy were all left out of the squad to face Chelsea last weekend rumours were rife of naughty behaviour. That may well, indeed, have been the case, but Keane is adamant four regular first team players were left out because they had simply not done enough in training.
Midweek drinking session or slack attitude in training, it’s difficult to decide which would upset him more! Keane, though, actually smiles at the memory of what he did. As he doesn’t do banter and doesn’t do friends, as he often reminds us, it’s nice to know something amuses him!
There will be some players who enjoy working with Keane and some who don’t, but ultimately, that isn’t a concern for the supporters.
Keane’s management style is unorthodox and he is an unconventional character, but ultimately, image management or not, the only thing that will matter between now and May is whether he keeps Sunderland in the Premier League.
It’s all very well adopting Clough’s style, it’s another thing entirely to replicate his success as a manager. That is the real challenge for Keane and he knows it...
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